Fifty

I reached the age of 50-years-old yesterday. Austin and Central Texas were hit with a punch winter storm that brought a bunch of sleet, ice and below-freezing temperatures, so we’d been kind of hunkered down since Saturday. Schools and my office were closed on my birthday because of the freezing temperatures and ice.

Turning 50 wasn’t a big deal. I don’t like making a big deal out of my birthdays anyway. I think Elise and I threw parties for each other when we both turned 30. I don’t know about her, but after that, I was kind of done with any kind of parties or recognition. Even going out for a nice dinner just seemed unecessary and hinging on obsessive. IN fact, I think the best birthday present I’d received in years was the one I gave myself late last week when I finally decided to figure out how to hide my birthday on Facebook. I didn’t get a single “Happy Birthday, Josh! ???” post on my wall and that was glorious. I wish I would’ve done that years ago. I don’t like the attention.

I woke up around 4:30 a.m. It was too cold and icy to go for my usual pre-5 a.m. run, so I drank my coffee, caught up on emails and family finances and ate half a bagel. I paced around the house a lot. I sat on the couch around 8:30 or 9:00 and started reading my book, and then I took a nap. When I woke up, a lot of the ice outside had started melting so I went for a run on the trails in Circle C.

I came home, showered, ate leftovers, tried to read more of my book, and took another nap on the couch. That was me indulging on my 50th birthday.

We had a quiet afternoon and evening at the house, just Elise, Mara, and me. We had lasagna for dinner. Elise made a chocolate cake for me. We topped the cake with some java chocolate chunk ice cream.

A lot of text messages and well wishes came in throughout the day. Many asked how I felt about turning 50. To me it’s just a number and a date on a calendar. I’m not much different than I was 5 years ago.

Although I guess I am in a new age division for racing now. ?